SmarterSpend Wins Award for Being a TOP Business Blog in Living Smart Category

Dear readers,

After a long absence I am glad to say that I have finally returned to blogging and Smarter Spend. The finally touches of my move to Arizona were finally completed and I will be posting regularly.

I have read some quality articles from around the blogosphere and my favorite financial bloggers to get back on track on what’s going on in cyberspace, the financial world, and more. I also got a new subscription to the Wall Street Journal so I can find some exciting content to write about.  Read more...

Free Excel Spreadsheets for Budgeting your Finances

Excel Spreadsheets Organize Your Finances

Personal finances can be very hard to manage without the use of spreadsheets for simplification, organization, and error reduction. However, designing a spreadsheet takes a lot of time and often requires the expert hand of an accountant. This is true especially for business spreadsheets, which take into account lots of expenses and income.

I have selected the finest spreadsheets from around the Internet for your use. Enjoy!

1) 401K Planner

Take into account all the variables of your 401k saving to see your retirement amount. Change the amount saved per check or the age of retirement and even the expected annual return. Comes with a cool graph to visualize your earnings.  Read more...

Worst CEOs of the Decade

In a decade with two gigantic recessions, many executives were faced with difficult decisions. Some saw their companies through the tough times and into a prosperous future, while others… failed. They fell flat into the ground, face first.

From those failures, a few stood out as disasters. Leading healthy corporations, they disappointed investors, shareholders, and the economy. Thousands of large businesses have failed, thousands taken over by more powerful and better managed competitors.

In an attempt to differentiate the bad from the worse, Smarter Spend has dug into the past and brought you the Worst CEOs of the 2000s Decade.  Read more...

Hottest Franchises to Open in 2010

Many of us have considered opening franchises in the past or are actively looking for one to open. Franchising has been around in the United States since the 1850s and there are currently over 1500 franchise-able brands. Approximately 4% of all businesses in the United States are franchises accounting for billions of dollars of sales every year.

There are several advantages to franchising: benefiting from an already successful or tested businesses model, sharing risks with a larger amount of people, technical support for problems, marketing and brand names are already well known, and finally, you are your own boss. These advantages have helped a franchise boom since the 1960s, with the ubiquitous McDonald’s the clear-cut leader in world wide franchises.  Read more...

Balance your Life while Expanding your Business

Are you a small business owner? This article from Victor Matarasa, MBA is just for you.

If you are a small business owner, you have undoubtedly encountered the seemingly difficult challenge of balancing your business obligations with those of home and family. Being committed to both a business and family life forces us to blur the lines sometimes. While trying to succeed in business and contribute to nurturing a family simultaneously is an ambitious goal, the frequent outcome is that we spread ourselves thin and wind up feeling as though we don’t do anything well.  Read more...

The Beginning of the End: American Capitalism

The ongoing financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 will forever change the face of the United States economic ideals. Out of the ashes of double digit unemployment, trillion dollar deficits, and billion dollar corporate bankruptcies will emerge a new America. This America will be different in many ways from the capitalist country that rose to economic powerhouse status in the post-World War II era, testing the ideals of laissez-faire capitalism and limiting the power and influence of the banking system and the corporations they cater to.  Read more...

Seven Most Powerful Corporations of the Future

The year is 2019, the global recession has ended and the market has witnessed a great shift in consumer spending, buyer habits, and marketing.  Older businesses that did not adapt to this change were swept away in a wave of bankruptcies and buyouts. The larger of the top companies in the world will have revenues somewhere near the trillion dollar mark per year, more than the GDPs for most countries.

Who will lead the business renaissance of the next decade?
The current (2008) annual revenue for the business is shown and businesses are ranked in predicted 2019 revenue. Some of you might be surprised at the shape of the market in just a few years time.  Read more...

Creative Ways to Save Money for Your Business

It’s money scraping time for most of us and businesses are no different. Budgets are being cut in almost every company to deal with lack of consumer demand and credit flow. If you have a start up or a small business, you might be a big victim of the present economy. Here are some great ways to save some money for your business:

1) Increase the flexibility of your budget by bartering
Does your business offer a unique type of service or product? If so, you might be able to barter for other professional services by offering your expertise or your goods in exchange for someone else’s. This is a great way to keep your inventory flowing and let others knows about your business while at the same time benefiting by cutting costs.  Read more...